Brevard man who found long-lost dog dies at 93

Walter Smith of Titusville, whose tireless search for his lost dog garnered headlines and eventually led to an amazing reunion, has died at 93.

Smith was a businessman in Rockford, Ill., for most of his life. After his wife, Jane, died, he bought a yellow Lab named Buddy and brought him to Florida, where he lived for part of the year.

Then one day in January 2002, Buddy vanished from Smith's van in Merritt Island's Home Depot parking lot, and the search began -- with posters, newspaper ads and heartbreaking visits to animal shelters.

Out of that search came one good thing: A police officer who had handled the missing-dog report coaxed Smith into adopting a papillon puppy, whom Smith named Pappy, or Papi.

"He loves everybody," Smith said. "He barks at them, but he just loves them all."

Then, in 2007, sisters Beth Beeco and Linda Rodman of Edgewater adopted a yellow Lab who was about to be abandoned at the pound. His name was Buddy.

Later that year, they stumbled across the lost Buddy's photo online and realized, with his freckled, strawberry nose, it was almost certainly the same dog. Smith got to meet his old friend again. "It's almost like finding a long-lost child," he said at the time.

But Buddy was a lot of dog to handle, so he let the sisters adopt him.

"We'll always thank Walter for the gift that he gave us when he gave us Buddy," Beeco said. "I'm so glad that Buddy had a chance to see him and that they got a chance to reunite."

Buddy, meanwhile, is doing well, though he had two seizures that several medical tests couldn't explain. "He's old and ornery, just like any other old man," Beeco said.

"My dad thought they were really great and took great care of him," said Smith's daughter, Debi Hines of Placitas, N.M., where Smith spent the last days of his life after suffering a stroke last spring. "Of course, by then, he really couldn't manage two dogs, and I think he felt really bad about that."

Pappy had one last visit with Smith in the nursing home Dec. 13, the day before he died, she said.

"He was so good," Hines said. "He sat on the bed and licked him. He knew something was wrong because my dad wasn't waking up."

Smith was always smart and independent, right up until his stroke, his daughter said.

"He just was an entrepreneur," she said. "He did a variety of other things. He was always really active. He loved reading, and of course he loved dogs."

Memorial donations may be made to the SPCA of North Brevard, 455 Cheney Highway, Titusville, FL 32780.